Shortlisting and Interviewing

Once you have advertised and applications have closed, you will need a robust process to shortlist and interview the most suitable applicants.

Use our recruitment checklist and supporting resources to get the best out of the process and avoid common pitfalls.

Please contact us at any stage of the process and for advice and support.

Who should be involved in the shortlisting and interviewing process?

Schools should have an appointment policy detailing who will be involved and how the process will run.

Remember to watch out for any actual or perceived conflicts of interestopen_in_new during the employment process.

For example, if a member of the appointment committee is friends with an applicant, this must be declared as a conflict.

The individual should then recuse themselves from the process, including any decision making.

This helps prevent challenges to the process or perceptions of bias.

How do you shortlist?

The first thing you need to do is identify the key criteria for the position.

For teaching positions, we recommend looking at the Professional Standards for Teachers in the corresponding Collective Agreementopen_in_new.

For other positions, you should look at the job description used to advertise for the role.

Once you’ve identified the criteria, it’s time to rank all the candidates.

Each member of the appointment committee should individually review and score each candidate using their CV and application form.

You can use our shortlisting templateopen_in_new to help you do this.

Reconvene and review each other's scores:

Disregard any candidates who scored 0 for essential criteria.
Discuss and agree on a final score for each of the remaining candidates.

Contact the top-ranking candidates to arrange an interview.

We recommend interviewing at least three people (depending on the role and how many applied).

For those who didn’t make the shortlist, it’s best practice to let them know as soon as possible.

If you find there are no suitable candidates after shortlisting, you can opt not to make an appointment with the intention of advertising again in the near future when the advertisement may attract more or different applicants.

If you find there are no suitable candidates after shortlisting, you do not have to make an appointment. Instead, review your advertising process and advertise again to attract new or different candidates.

For more information, you can refer to our article on advertising and job descriptions.open_in_new

What should you do after shortlisting for a non-teaching position?

It can take up to 20 working days for a police vet to be returned. To avoid delays to the recruitment process, we recommended requesting a police vet for all shortlisted candidates for a non-teaching position as soon as possible.

This means you should have the police vets returned when decisions are being made following the interviews.

Holders of current practising certificates or limited authorities to teach issued by the Teaching Council do not need to be vetted again. For more information, you can refer to our article on police vetting and safety checking.

What is the best way to prepare for interviews?

Decide which members of the appointment committee will attend the interviews and define their roles.

Based on the criteria from the shortlisting stage, prepare a range of questions to ask all the candidates invited to interview.

You will also need to ask questions to ascertain the candidate's experiences and attitude toward child safety. Page 31 of the Ministry of Education's VCA Practical Guideopen_in_new provides examples of appropriate questions that can be used.

To ensure consistency, all candidates should be asked the same questions and where possible, have the same committee members present at each interview.

You can use our interviewing matrix templateopen_in_new to guide the interview panel through its questions and to help you record information.

What are some useful interview techniques?

Interviews provide an opportunity for both you and the candidate to assess mutual suitability.

A well-conducted interview not only helps you evaluate a candidate’s potential, but also allows you to showcase your school’s professionalism and welcoming culture.

There are several interview styles that you could use (or even combine).

What is behavioural interviewing?

Behavioural interviewing, also known as competency-based interviewing, helps you evaluate a candidate by looking at how they’ve handled similar situations in the past.

Behavioural interview questions typically begin with a framing statement:

Tell me about a time when…
Give me an example of…

Followed by questions that focus on the specific scenario provided:

How did you handle it?
What steps did you take?
What, if anything, would you do differently next time?

To develop effective behavioural interview questions:

Identify the skill or competency you want to assess.
Define good performance to create a benchmark for evaluating candidates’ responses.
Consider what poor performance looks like – this can help you craft questions that reveal how candidates handle challenges related to that skill.

For example, you could ask:

Describe a time when you made a change based on feedback you received.
What was the feedback, and how did you respond?
What impact did the change have?

Allow time for the interviewee to provide sufficient details and reflect in their answer. If you feel the interviewee has not provided enough detail or could reflect more, you can ask further follow-up questions.

What is inductive interviewing?

Inductive interviewing is a more flexible approach that does not rely on a set of pre-defined questions.

Instead, the candidate's responses shape the direction of the interview, allowing for a more natural and dynamic conversation. These questions can also help you assess how the candidate aligns with the position's overall requirements.

The interviewer begins with a broad, open-ended question and then builds on the candidate’s response.

For example, you could ask: “tell me about a recent challenge you faced in your role.”

If the candidate discusses a project that did not go as planned, the interviewer can then ask:

What would you do differently next time?
How did you adapt to the challenges?

Again, allow time for the interviewee to provide sufficient details and reflect in their answer. If you feel the interviewee has not provided enough detail or could reflect more, you can ask further follow-up questions.

What are some common challenges for interviewees?

Your goal is to give candidates the best chance to demonstrate their abilities – not to catch them off guard.

You don’t want to miss out on the best person for the role just because they stumbled in the interview.

Below are common challenges interviewees face and practical ways to help them stay on track:

Sticking to theory only – interviewees might forget to provide evidence of how they have practically applied the topic they are discussing in their answer. If you ask a theoretical question or receive a theoretical response, it’s best to follow up with a behavioural question to gain deeper insight.
Collective vs individual – sometimes a candidate may respond with “what we did” rather than “what I did”. In these situations, you will gain a better understanding of the candidate’s skills by asking follow-up questions that focus on their contribution.
Drawing a blank – if a candidate cannot think of an example at the time, let them come back to the question later in the interview. Alternatively, you could ask them to provide an example or discuss a situation from outside of teaching.

Can you ask questions about someone’s health, family status, or disability?

It is illegal for an employer to refuse, decide not to employ, or appoint on less favourable terms because of any of the prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 21 of the Human Rights Act 1993open_in_new.

The questions you ask during the recruitment process can be used as evidence of, or to infer, discrimination – even if you did not intend to do so.

Therefore, to avoid issues, only ask questions that clearly relate to the person's suitability for the position (both of referees and candidates).

You should also ensure any secondary information you inevitably pick up from legitimate questions is not used to influence any decision.

A common sticking point is questions about health or whether someone plans to have children.

Questions that probe beyond a clear connection to a candidate's ability to carry out the role they are interviewing for (including open-ended, general questions about their health or plans for having children) are generally not permissible.

For a good case study of when question cross the line, please read this Community Law articleopen_in_new.

Question a principal could ask

Is our process ready to go in the event of an unexpected vacancy?
Are our employee job descriptions up to date and ready to use?
How do we decide which question we’re going to ask in the interviews?
How do we assist a candidate who appears to be struggling in an interview?

Templates, resources, and references

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Links from us

Ministry of Education